Australian woman wakes to find 17-foot python in her bedroom

MISSION BEACH, Australia, June 23 (UPI) -- An Australian woman who awoke to a 17-foot python in her bedroom said she believes the serpent had been hiding in her home for a decade.

Trina Hibberd of Mission Beach, Queensland, posted a video to Facebook after she awoke Monday to find the 17-foot python, which she dubbed Monty, stretched from her living room to her bedroom.

Hibberd said a friend visiting her home previously alerted her to the snake inside the building. She said she believes Monty has been living inside the roof of her house for 10 years.

"I guess he came in to have a bit of a feed or say hello, or he's gone a bit senile. I've no idea," Hibberd told the BBC.

Hibberd said Monty knocked over a lamp and turned on a light before snake catcher Dave Goodwin arrived at the home.

Goodwin used a pair of tongs to get the python to coil around his arm.

"The tongs won't hold it, it's too big, so I use the tongs to divert its attention and grab it by the scruff of the neck," he said. "That ensures that the snake lets go of everything else, wraps himself around my arm."

The catcher said Monty was relocated to a sewage pond in the Cassowary Coast Regional Council area to help with a rat infestation.

"I guess Monty has gone to snake heaven and he's going to be this big fatso," Hibberd said.